


No Escape

by startrekkingaroundasgard



Series: Bucky Barnes Bingo Round 2 [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Assets & Handlers, Bingo, Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, Choking, Dubious Morality, Enemies, Hydra (Marvel), Injury, Light Angst, Other, Threats of Violence, Trapped, Trauma, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:34:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26693800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/startrekkingaroundasgard/pseuds/startrekkingaroundasgard
Summary: When the Avengers attack a HYDRA base, the reader is trapped in a small space under rubble with Bucky, who realises that they were once a part of the team that handled The Winter Soldier.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Reader, James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader
Series: Bucky Barnes Bingo Round 2 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1919305
Comments: 7
Kudos: 28





	No Escape

**Author's Note:**

> BBB2020 square: opposing sides

“Look out!”

Before you could even process where the shout came from, a heavy weight slammed into your side and threw you up against the wall. The impact only further destabilised the structure and you curled into yourself in fear of the rubble raining down from above. Muscles tight, you squeezed your eyes shut and braced yourself for the pain but none came.

The man shielding you swore through gritted teeth with each lump on concrete that struck his back and bounced off his skull. His blood trickled down onto you, but better that than the crushing steel poles and sparking cables that he faced. You curled into an even smaller ball beneath him, vaguely hoping that he wouldn’t die because being crushed under a corpse was no fun at all. 

“Are you okay?” he grumbled, voice thick as he attempted to hide his pain. You recognised it instantly, though, perhaps even more so because of it – you couldn’t recall a time you’d heard him not in pain – and guilt gnawed at your thoughts which quickly turned to fear. If he realised who you were, if the memories hadn’t been wiped entirely, then this calm, peaceful nature would evaporate instantly.

Still hiding your face, grateful for the awkward angle that prevented The Soldier from recognising you, you breathed a quiet affirmation. “Are you?”

“If my spine wasn’t half made of vibranium I’d be in trouble but I think I’m good.”

The Soldier straightened, the quiet sound of metal plates scratching as they clicked back into place, and removed the elastic band from his hair. He ran his flesh fingers through the dark strands, brushed out all the dust and debris, then pulled it all back up into a bun. He moved with a fluidity that was at great odds with the stiff nature you recalled and the softness on his face was, honestly, a little disconcerting.

Behind him, a wall of rubble stood between you and the rest of the base. Even with his super strength, there was no getting through that in a hurry. You almost wished that you’d been crushed beneath it instead of surviving only to be trapped in here with him. There was no way you could see this ending well for either of you.

You buried your face in your hands which only encouraged The Soldier to crouch down in the small space in front of your feet to check you were okay. His gaze rolled over you like a physical wave, penetrating your aura of calm to see the utter mess you were beneath. You jumped at his hand on your shoulder, tearing free of the touch instantly.

“Woah, s’alright. I won’t hurt you.” He rocked back on his heels and slumped to the ground, back against the wall of rubble that trapped you together in this distant corner of the base. “You sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine.”

A five year old could have seen through that lie but, curiously, The Soldier didn’t push the subject. Instead, he stared up at the ceiling and hummed thoughtfully. “That’s not gonna hold long.”

Risking identification for a quick glance, you immediately regretted the decision. He was right; the concrete slab overhead was wedged between two metal pillars, stuck tightly in place but one wrong move from complete collapse – straight onto your heads.

You banged your forehead on your knee and groaned, “I should’ve stayed home today.”

“You and me both,” The Soldier chuckled. You’d never heard him laugh and it made you uneasy. 

The whirling adjustment of metal plates made you anxious so you spared another swift look at him to see exactly what he was up to. Far from drawing back for a knock out punch as you’d expected, he was simply recalibrating his hand and allowing it to expel the dust particles caught between the joints.

One of the fingers was currently bent back at an incredibly awkward angle but he didn’t seem to be in pain, an assumption he was apparently happy to confirm. “It’s only connected to the nerves in my shoulder. It reacts to the electrical signals provided by my brain but I don’t receive them back so no pain. Only when there’s pressure against the shoulder joint do I actually feel anything.”

It was fascinating. A far more advanced model than the one you could remember, actually a thing of beauty as well as function. “Can I see where it’s attached?”

He regarded you intently and you realised a moment too late that that was not a normal question to ask. You tried to smile but it must have come across as rather unconvincing for he asked, “What do you do here?”

“I’m in H.R. Human Resources.”

“Doing what?”

Wasn’t that the question indeed. You threw your head back and sighed. “I oversee the management of assets for my employers.”

Pretty much every word in your brief answer brought up a red flag for him. It was obvious from the way he pulled away, consciously increasingly the distance between you, and the tightening of his lips. He might not remember you yet but you were willing to be that it wouldn’t be long before he did.

“Who employs you?”

“One guess.”

“HYDRA.”

“Ding ding.”

The Soldier’s expression hardened and your heart missed a beat. You’d forgotten how truly terrifying he was. All that power in one sharp stare, it was both remarkable and frightening. His hand moved to his waistband and the fact that he didn’t bother to try and hide the movement only served to reinforce the threat. The gun remained in its holder but his fingers still twitched against it. “Why are you here?”

There seemed no point in lying to him now so you stretched your legs out as far as you could, feet flat against the wall of rubble, and answered, “Checking in on their assets. Three enhanced potentials were being trained at this facility and I was here to collect the reports on their progress.”

“Define ‘trained’.”

“I don’t get involved in the process itself. I just collect the files and take them to whoever needs to see them.”

“You know what happens to them, though.”

Obviously, you knew. Everyone did. They were tortured. Brainwashed. Beaten into shape. It was horrible to think about, so you simply pushed the thoughts aside and didn’t. “It’s not my business.”

He narrowed his eyes and you felt the judgement roll off of him in waves. You weren’t surprised. Every now and then you looked in the mirror and saw the exact same expression on your own face. Disgust was an ugly word but it summed it up pretty damn well.

The Soldier’s voice was gruff, accusatory, as if his condemnation wasn’t something you heard every day from your conscience. “You know what HYDRA do, how they train new recruits and ensure compliance. How can you stand by and do nothing? Don’t you care about them at all?”

“Of course I care! I’m not a monster. But it’s survival.”

“What do you mean?”

“My family have been loyal to HYDRA for generations. I don’t go in for the Nazism or the god mythology but I can’t leave. They’d hunt me down and kill me. So, in order to survive, I do the best I can at a pointless job and stay away from the belly of the beast. Surely you can understand that?”

“No, I don’t.”

A bashing on the other side of the wall filled the otherwise heavy silence between you as someone attempted to punch an opening into your caved in corner of the building. You hoped that it was your own people but it was foolish to believe that the pathetic group of soldiers based here would be able to stand up to the Avengers.

Thankfully, you supposed, the rubble that separated you from those that would call you enemies was too thick to punch through and, being load bearing, it was too risky for them to blast it. Still, it wouldn’t take them long to find a work around. Until then, though, you would savour these last moments of freedom before they clapped you in chains and threw away the key.

“How long have you worked for HYDRA?”

Honestly, you were surprised when The Soldier broke the silence. It didn’t take a genius to work out what he really wanted to know and, seeing how it would all come out in the end anyway, you answered the question he pointedly wasn’t asking. “Long enough for you to have been one of the assets I oversaw management of.”

“I don’t remember your face.”

“As I said, I just collect the paperwork. We only actually crossed paths once.”

“Did I hurt you?”

Convinced you’d misheard, you asked him to repeat the question. When it came back exactly the same as before, all you could do was frown. “What does it matter? I’m one of the bad guys, remember?”

“So I did, then.”

His gaze grew distant, almost as if he were searching his mind for any recollection of the event, and you pondered whether or not to tell him the truth. Surely it was safer to allow guilt to cloud his thoughts – for he seemed genuinely bothered by it, regardless of the fact that you were HYDRA – and sit in silence until his teammates came.

However, you couldn’t bring yourself to lie now. Even though you worked for some of the worst people in the world, you liked to believe that you were, at your core, an honest person. Decent was questionable but, regardless of how you’d been raised, you would still be truthful and spare his conscience. And, perhaps, in doing so, save him from the gnawing guilt which would hopefully improve your chances of a fair deal with SHIELD.

“You tried to attack me. You tore from the bonds they held you in and lunged for me. You didn’t get far – they’d hooked you to up to some kind of drug; I didn’t ask what – and they sedated you. You were then put back in for reconditioning and I was reassigned.”

“Did you watch?”

“When they put you in the chair?”

He nodded, eyes dark. Under that intense gaze, fear bubbled up inside of you and you suddenly wished that you had accepted the gun upon your arrival to the base. Calm as The Soldier had been until now, you had the very distinct feeling that that peacefulness was about to shatter.

Toying with the cufflink on your blazer, the pin of which was coated in a toxic paralytic for emergencies, you answered, “I did.”

“Why?” Never had anyone managed to convey such hatred in a single word.

“Curiosity.”

The Soldier’s fists were tight, knuckles pressed so hard into the ground that the concrete fractured beneath the pressure. Every muscle in his jaw was locked with tension. The plates in his arm scratched harshly over one another as he channelled that anger you’d seen before.

You almost wanted to pat yourself on the back for being so stupid as to rile up a human weapon with nowhere to run from all his pent up aggression and hate. However, he didn’t swing for you, didn’t try to choke you to death as he might once have done.

Dust fell as his team began to shift the thick metal pillars and clear a path from above. It settled in your hair and you had to cover your eyes. Blocked from view, no longer under the power of his dark gaze, you said to The Soldier, “I wanted to help you. To break you out of the chair and get you as far away from them as possible.”

He huffed, unimpressed. “That’s the first lie you’ve told me.”

“No,” you said, shaking your head. “It was a brief second, right before they wiped you. I wondered what would happen if I broke you out and we ran away. I thought that I could turn my back on HYDRA and be free of them. But then they switched the machine on and I knew. I was as trapped as you and there is no escape. Not for me. Not for you.”

“HYDRA don’t control me now.”

You smiled sadly as a rope dropped beside your head. You offered your wrists and held The Soldier’s gaze as he clicked a pair of cuffs around them. You wondered whether your loyalty to HYDRA would be rewarded with a quick execution or whether they’d forget about you and leave you to rot in a SHIELD cell for the rest of your days.

As The Soldier tightened the rescue rope around your waist for his colleagues to haul you out, you caught his arm and said, “Are you so sure? Because I heard all it takes is a few words and -”

His hand was around your throat before you could even finish the threat, eyes glowering like fire in the night. “That won’t work on me any more.”

Despite the posturing, the grip wasn’t enough to kill you. It was barely enough to scare you. What it did do was make breathing difficult but, voice hoarse, you spat, “There is more than one way to control you, Soldier. They will get you back eventually.”

He held your gaze strong and steady for a long moment before he dropped his arm and stepped away. Turning his back to you, no longer deeming you worthy of his time, The Soldier mumbled, “I’d like to see them try.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment and let me know what you think :)


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